AkzoNobel has issued more than 126,000 carbon credits worth more than $500,000 to ship owners under its carbon credits program— the first of its kind within the shipping industry.
The program, launched in 2014 and developed in conjunction with the Gold Standard Foundation and the Fremco Group, rewards ship owners that convert existing vessels from a biocidal antifouling to a biocide-free advanced hull coating such as AkzoNobel’s Intersleek, which reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Last year the program won the Best Offsetting Project award in the 2015 Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings.
On average, each of the 16 vessels included in the first issue achieved savings of just over 1,250 tons of fuel and 4,000 tons of CO2 per year, resulting in the award of 126,785 credits by the Gold Standard Foundation. AkzoNobel expects that number will increase as more vessels enroll in the carbon credits program.
Based on the average 10 percent CO2 savings recorded in this first carbon credits issue, the full fleet of over 4,500 vessels currently using Intersleek have already achieved total annual reductions in carbon emissions of around 17 million tons of CO2. That figure represents around 1.5 percent of the global emissions from shipping, as estimated by the 3rd IMO Greenhouse Gas Study.
AkzoNobel is currently in discussions with the enrolled ship owners regarding sale and offsetting options for their credits.
Photo Credit: container ship via Shutterstock
